Locating Information

STANDARD 1.6 Writing Strategies w Level 4

USING DICTIONARY GUIDE WORDS

Open a dictionary and look for the two words in the upper right-hand and upper left-hand corner of the pages. The one at the left is the same as the first word on that page and the one on the right is the same as the last word on that page.

These words are called guide words. Open your dictionary to any page somewhere near the middle of the book and point to the guide word(s) you find on that page. What do guide words tell you and do they help you use a dictionary? Look closely and carefully and you should be able to note that the words after the first guide word and before the last guide word are all arranged in alphabetical order on that same page.

Suppose that you were to turn to a particular spot in some dictionary and that the two guide words appearing at the top of the page were hard and hate. Without opening up any dictionary, what do you suppose are some of the words that might appear on the page? Your challenge is to try to think of any of the words that would be found on that particular page, and write them on the lines below. (Your teacher may allow you to find a partner or to work in groups.)

Words that I should be able to find between hard and hate:

_______________________

If you wrote words like: happy, harass, harbor, hard, harvest, haste, hat, and hatch, then congratulations! You did very well.

Objective: Students will locate information in reference texts by using organizational features.

RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY